"It looks very greedy to me. I think that if you are getting paid for three jobs, you should do three jobs and I think that is absolutely impossible. To me this is snouts in the trough and I just find it very unacceptable."

The MPA allowance would have ordinarily gone to the Chairman but under MPA rules it has been diverted to Kit Malthouse instead because the Chairman is now the Mayor.

Under a change in the law, all Assembly Members who are also members of the police authority can now draw a separate allowance.

However, the last Chair of the MPA Len Duvall did not claim any allowance when the law changed in May.

Testing Times

Boris Johnson is said to have asked the MPA to find £18 million pounds worth of savings and at today's meeting Kit Malthouse said that they had been through a 'very testing budget round'.

But with members of the authority today approving a total of £191,610 in extra allowances to themselves, then things are only likely to get more testing still.

Whatever the rules before, I am delighted to see that Boris is ensuring that public spirited servants are being adequately rewarded. I'm sure thge voters in Bexley and Bromley will see that this is value for money.